Martyr Tation of Claudiopolis

Tation was a Christian of Bithynia, in Asia Minor, who was martyred during the persecution of the emperor Diocletian (284-305). According to the synaxarion, he came from the town of Mantinaeas, near the city of Claudiopolis, and is numbered among the many who suffered for their faith in the early fourth century. He is commemorated on August 24.

When his persecutors learned that he confessed Christ, Tation was arrested and brought to Claudiopolis to be examined by the governor Urban. He was repeatedly urged to renounce his faith, but he refused, and so he was imprisoned and subjected to various tortures, including being beaten with sticks. The accounts of his life relate that after these sufferings he was buried alive and so gave up his soul to God.

Like many of the martyrs of the Diocletianic persecution preserved in the Eastern menaia, the surviving record of Tation is brief, centering on his arrest, his confession before the governor, and the manner of his death. His memory is kept in the Orthodox calendar on August 24 (September 6 by the civil reckoning).